Centering equity and justice in conversations of environmental risk and hazard.
Just Environments Lab’s main objective is to place justice and equity first in all discussions of the future of our environment. Without centering justice and equity, visions of the future remain systemically unjust. We seek to understand a past, present, and future of our environment rooted in the struggle for environmental freedom.
– Research Areas
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Examining climate justice movements in communities, but also exposing inequities entrenched within existing approaches to mitigation and adaptation.
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Questioning “resilience” approaches, instead working towards healthy and healing environments.
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Recognizing inequities in existing approaches to emergency management and post-disaster recovery and reconstruction.
Our research clusters identify three major areas of focus/need as expressed by the underrepresented communities we serve. Across these research clusters, we support an interdisciplinary mix of humanistic social sciences, design + arts, and humanities based approaches to address environmental, climate, and disaster injustices.
– Recent News + Publications
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![Map showing areas of possible flooding in the Pájaro Valley]()
[PUBLICATION] Our Quick Response Report covering disaster recovery in unincorporated areas is now published in the Natural Hazards Center's library
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![Logo with text saying "Lau Grant for Just Climate Futures"]()
[NEWS] JE-L awarded a Lau Just Climate Futures Grant from the Institute of Urban and Regional Development to assemble an historical ecology of the Pájaro River for the U.S. Army Corps
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[AWARD] Our JAPA article on procedural vulnerability wins the award for 2023 Best Article by Emerging Scholars
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![Image of flooding in California, Winter 2023.]()
[NEWS] JE-L receives funding from CalWater + USGS to develop flood mitigation tools for unincorporated communities in California
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![Screenshot of journal cover]()
[PUBLICATION] Unincorporated and Underserved: Critical Stormwater Infrastructure Challenges in South Texas Colonias
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![Photograph of Pajaro River]()
[NEWS] JE-L receives a Quick Response Award from the Natural Hazards Center to conduct community workshops in the Pájaro Valley
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![Photo from Washington Post showing failed Pajaro River levee]()
[NEWS] "Flooded and feeling forgotten" - JE-L assists reporters examining the Pájaro Valley floods
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![Cover of our lab's report on colonia flooding]()
[PUBLICATION] Colonia Flooding: An Institutional Analysis for the Lower Río Grande Valley
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![Screenshot of the MIT LCAU article on MIT's website.]()
[PUBLICATION] From Community Resilience to Climate Justice
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![First page of the publication Procedural Vulnerability and Its Effects on Equitable Post-Disaster Recovery in Low-Income Communities]()
[PUBLICATION] Procedural Vulnerability and Its Effects on Equitable Post-Disaster Recovery in Low-Income Communities
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![Book cover for "Informality and the City"]()
[PUBLICATION] Stigmas of Informality: Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction in the South Texas Colonias
– Environmental + Climate Justice Syllabus
The goal of the environmental and climate justice syllabus is to assemble readings, articles, case studies, and biographies on the key writers, scholars, and activists working for environmental freedom (to borrow Malini Ranganathan’s phrase!). Our emphasis, here, is on the Black, Indigenous, and/or Latinx individuals, organizations, and movements that remain foundational to the continued fight for environmental justice and climate justice.